AboutScott A Wilson Expertise I can answer any question in general math, algebra, complex mathematics, trigonometry, pre-calculus, probability, statistics, ... is there an end to this list?
Experience Experience in the area; I have tutored people over the years in algebra, basic math, and statistics.
I worked at The Boeing Company for over 5 years.
Education/Credentials: MS degreee in Mathematics from Oregon State Univeristy; taken well over 100 hours of upper division credits in mathematical courses such as calculus, statistics, probabilty, linear algrebra, powers, linear regression, matrices, and more.
I graduated with honors.
Past/Present Clients: College Students at OSU, various math people since college, over 700 people in math and calculus.
Expert: Scott A Wilson Date: 5/5/2008 Subject: sampling statistics
Question Hi Scott; First of all, thanks so much for the help. I'm baffled as to how to even start this one!
In the ocean, there's an unknown number of fish. If boat A trolls the waters with a 1000 gallon net and boat B uses a 10 gallon net, what is the difference in probabilities of catching one fish?
Is it possible to figure this out? Thanks again - Craig
Answer You're welcome, Craig!
What's important about a net is the area with which it is being dragged through the water. Assumining the area of the opening of the 100 gallon net is 100 times as large as the 10 gallon net, the probability is about 100 times as great.
It is not the size of the net that matters, but the size of the opening. It would be possible to use a 100 gallon net and a 1000 gallon net that both had an opening of, say, only two square feet. Over time, the 1000 gallon net would catch more fish since the 100 gallon net would be full of fish much sooner.
